Various occupations place workers in precarious positions at relatively dangerous heights thereby creating a need for fall-arresting safety apparatus. Among other things, such apparatus usually include a safety line interconnected between a support structure and a worker working in proximity to the support structure. The safety line is typically secured to a full-body safety harness worn by the worker. Obviously, such a harness must be designed to remain secure about the worker in the event of a fall. In addition, the harness should arrest a worker's fall in as safe a manner as possible, placing a minimal amount of strain on the worker's body. Yet another design consideration is to minimize the extent to which workers may consider the harness uncomfortable and/or cumbersome.
In addition, there may also be a need for a worker to don a safety vest. Tasks that could necessitate donning a safety vest include construction, bridge construction and maintenance, utility work, aircraft work, and offshore work. Safety vests are commonly used by workers to make the workers more visible, protect the workers' garments, provide additional pockets, keep the workers warm, and other various reasons.
Some prior art safety vests have safety harnesses incorporated into them, however, it is typically difficult to inspect the safety harnesses. Therefore, these prior art safety vests are not very user friendly.
The present invention addresses the problems associated with prior art safety vests with integrated safety harnesses and provides for a more user friendly safety vest with an integrated safety harness.